Here It Is: the Trailer for ‘The Rum Diary’

A shorter version of this trailer aired on TV last night, and since I don’t watch as much network television as I used to, I wasn’t sure how new the trailer was. Turns out it’s brand new—and it’s news because Johnny Depp has been working on The Rum Diarysince 2007. The movie itself has reportedly been locked in pre-production purgatory since 2000; Hunter S. Thompson, frustrated by the slow development of The Rum Diary, famously called the project a “waterhead f—ckaround.”

Hunter S. Thompson was 22 when he wrote the novel The Rum Diary, but the book was only finally published in 1998. It tells the story of Paul Kemp, a journalist who moves to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to write for a newspaper staffed almost entirely by alcoholics. (Not kidding.) The movie began filming, at last, in 2009, with Johnny Depp once again cast as its lead. It also stars Aaron Eckhart and Amber Heard.